President Barack Obama sat down for talks in Manila on Monday, the last stop in his four-nation Asia tour, hours after the United States and Philippine governments signed a new military pact granting a larger presence for US forces in the country.
The agreement, which will have an initial 10-year term, is touted as the highlight of Obama’s first visit to the Philippines, the United States’ oldest ally in the region.
It sets the framework for a beefed-up rotation of US troops, ships and warplanes through the Philippines, part of a rebalancing of US resources towards fast-growing Asia and the Pacific.
